ClientEarth's observations on the planned Belgian Capacity Mechanism

Following a trend in Member States, Belgium is planning to adopt a market-wide capacity mechanism to ensure security of supply in the country beyond 2025 – to cope both with the nuclear phase-out in the country and the coal-phase out in neighbouring countries. The scheme aims at increasing domestic capacity and to support new gas capacity in particular. Studies about the genuine need for the capacity mechanism are contradictory and there is therefore no established need for such a scheme, which could cost consumers money without an actual need for it. Increasing gas capacity at a time where EU countries must reduce their carbon emissions makes no sense. We argue that the State aid guidelines for Environmental Protection and Energy should be enforced in light of the 2030 climate objectives, the Green Deal policy and the objective of achieving carbon-neutrality by 2050.